A&E mobile phone app is a first for Hull and East Yorkshire NHS
HEALTH officials are planning to create a mobile phone app for patients.
Hull And East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust said the plans are believed to be the first of their kind.
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FIRST OF ITS KIND: Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is developing a mobile phone app for patients.
The app will tell patients the waiting time in the city's accident and emergency (A&E) department and signpost people to other places, such as minor injuries units.
It will also include maps of the hospital sites, leaflets on various diseases or conditions, and clinic times.
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Trust chief executive Phil Morley said the app, which could be launched at the end of March, will cost about £16,000 and be paid for using charitable funds.
It will be free to download and patients will also be able to leave feedback about their hospital experience.
Mr Morley said: "It's a great way to try to communicate and patients will be able to use the app to leave comments and feedback.
"It's a way of reaching out to people.
"Whether you have been an inpatient or an outpatient, rate the hospital and tell us what you want us to improve."
Mr Morley said the app is still in the planning stages but it is hoped the A&E waiting time information may encourage patients with minor injuries to use the under-pressure department more wisely.
He said: "If you're thinking 'shall I go to A&E?' and it's three-and-a-half hours' wait, people might go to their GP."
The trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, is under pressure to make £99m in efficiency savings by 2018.
Patient and NHS campaigner Dermot Rathbone, 44, is secretary of the Save Our NHS Hull And East Yorkshire group, which has launched a petition to save services at the hospitals.
He suffers from a degenerative brain condition called cerebellar ataxia and needs ongoing treatment.
Mr Rathbone, of Kirk Ella, said although the app will be paid for using charitable funds, he does not believe it is the right move and may not target the right people.
He said: "More elderly and vulnerable people who may need services might not have the skill set to be able to use it. The sort of people who would use it can go on the internet anyway.
"It's not sending the right message out at a time of cuts."
Ray Gray, regional officer for Unison, said: "What's the point? Haven't they got better things to do with £16,000?
"They used to tell you to turn mobile phones off in hospital because it affects the equipment."
Comments
by Posativus
Thursday, November 01 2012, 7:09AM
“MORLEY FOCUS ON THE PRIORITIES - PATIENT PERSONALCARE AND DIGNITY THIS IS A DISTRACTION”
by SPBlakeney
Wednesday, October 31 2012, 7:52PM
“...and wlll also provide sailing times for the NHS yacht along the Humber, just to round off the NHS's venture into ludicrous, irrelevant, obscenely non-healthcare related PR and 'customer service'.
Real 'customer service' would be getting a pain clinic appointment or scan, or test results in UNDER 7 weeks, not a sailing boat, mobile apps, literature in Punjabi, Polish, Urdu and annual forest-levelling quantities of pointless health questionnaires that try establish the obvious. The NHS is meant to be a healthcare organisation, all its doing locally is pushing peoples blood pressure up. Ditch the PR, ditch the management, and spend the b****y cash on nurses, scans, appointments-I'm sure some of the £100 billion it gets must be set aside for such minor requirements...”
by AstynomiaKats
Wednesday, October 31 2012, 6:51PM
“According to the Mail's stories this week I will be told how long I have to wait by this phone/text/app thingy whist being handed a bill showing me how much it has cost to treat me.
Has the H&ER hospitals given their press officer overtime or some new mediacation? (SIC), they have certainly been coming up with a lot of wacky stuff this week.”
by audemars
Wednesday, October 31 2012, 3:55PM
“£16,000 is one auxiliary nurses wages (band 2) or 1/10th Phil Morleys wages”
by bettyboop2501
Wednesday, October 31 2012, 12:29PM
“£16.000 =1 nurses wages ???? ummmm get real NHS”
by jackboo2011
Wednesday, October 31 2012, 12:27PM
“just be tough on time wasters A&E is for life or death not i trapped me finger or i am drunk and want a bed if they charged you for waiting to be found out as a non emergancy they would leave in mass”
by C4RTY
Wednesday, October 31 2012, 11:16AM
“If people want to know the waiting time before they arrive at A&E, it's obvious it's not an emergency. The minor injury units are just not being used enough and the Ambulance Service is overused, where other means of transport can be used. This app is a waste of much needed money, where as common sense is much cheaper but unfortunately not so common.”
by tosh1958
Wednesday, October 31 2012, 10:59AM
“It does not cost 16k to build an app!”
by Prescotts_Cat
Wednesday, October 31 2012, 10:02AM
“£16k is a rip off. Whoever has quoted this has seen it's the NHS and the £ signs have flashed before their eyes. If they bothered to get quotes from other companies they would have been able to get it a lot lot lot lot cheaper.”
by IloveHull
Wednesday, October 31 2012, 8:09AM
“Wouldn't it have been cheaper and easier for the elderly just to be able to make a simple phone call. But I guess £16k is only the cost of 5 hip replacements. Why does the money's have to come out of a charity, why don't the surgeons and top staff have a whip round. Guess its a good thing though I do give it the thumbs up for technological progress.”